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Opinion and Comment on Intellectual Property, Business, Science & Technology and others issues which fascinate us
UK Ratifies Unified Patent Court Agreement
Unified Patent Court – Key Step Forward What’s just happened? The UK government yesterday announced its ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement – the UPC Agreement for short. Read the report of the announcement here. What happens next? The UPC Agreement requires ratification by UK, Germany and France. Until that happens, it can’t come into […]
Light in low gear
It’s fascinating that scientists from time to time think the unthinkable. Here, this MIT group have actually merged mass-less photons of light together to get … well, a new form of light, one where the photons have mass and a slower speed. So, if gaining mass also slowed the photons down, as this paper says, […]
Announcement: Brexit – No bearing on European Patent Convention (EPC)
It ought to be “no news” rather than News by now. But it’s good to see a Brexit announcement from an official horses mouth. The key takeaways from this announcement (and previous information from various sources) are: A European patent application, filed before or after Brexit, can contain a designation of the UK A PCT […]
The World’s Biggest Lithium-ion Battery
Another “first” for Mr Musk. Australia isn’t the only place where power outages are frequent enough to be troublesome; it happens in rural parts, and even urban parts, of Europe. Note the reported millisecond reaction time after the conventional grid failed. Bravo to Tesla innovation!
EPC Patent Costs – Lifetime Budget Tool
This new EPC patent costs tool is designed for use by US patent attorney and patent agent principals. It looks to be a first of its type in the EPC patent procurement arena. Key features of our EPC patent costs budget tool We designed the tool to generate an indicative lifetime budget that you can use […]
When you can catch us at our desks this Christmas!
Christmas day is next Monday, so we’re taking a holiday! We’re going to be away from our desks from 18:00 Friday December 22. We’ll be back at midday on December 27. If you send us an email before then, someone will be checking to see what you’ve said that morning. You’ll have a response in […]
Painless, self-administered, dissolving – Microneedle Patches
Here’s something in an area where we’ve worked on IP – microneedle patches. There’s been a lot of news flow on this technology but this piece is worth singling out as it’s a report on Phase I trials. Virtually painless, capable of self-administration and the microneedles themselves dissolve whilst still penetrating the skin – fascinating, […]
Competition in Space
Japan actually started putting GPS satellites up a few years ago. Apart from the US, Russia, China, the EU and India have satellites in place, some constellations currently with just regional coverage and not yet fully operational. It does look like the accuracy of the US GPS system doesn’t fulfill some modern commercial objectives in […]
Of course Google (Alphabet) can hold on to its trade mark GOOGLE
Trade mark rights can be incredibly valuable. But those rights need to be looked after. The owner has to use the trade mark, and do so properly. In most places, the legal rights have to be renewed every so often. And if a trade mark gets taken into the language as a descriptor, the owner may lose […]